In No Great Hurry: 13 Lessons in Life with Saul Leiter

Next WeekIn Woodstock

Nov 24

Sun 1:00

(UK/2013/dir by Tomas Leach)

IN PERSON: Filmmaker Tomas Leach… ($10 & $8 members)

According to filmmaker Tomas Leach his subject, Saul Leiter, the octogenarian, limelight-shy New Yorker, helped usher in the use of color photography, and could have been lauded as the great pioneer of color photography, but was never driven by the lure of success.

Instead he preferred to drink coffee and photograph in his own way, amassing an archive of beautiful work that is now piled high in his New York apt (a la Bill Cunningham). An intimate and personal film, the filmmaker follows Saul as he deals with the triple burden of clearing an apartment full of memories, becoming world famous in his 80s, and fending off the pesky filmmaker all the while giving a baker’s dozen in life’s lessons, such as “The important thing in life is not what you get, but what you throw out.” All the while this son of a Talmudic scholar (rarely without a camera round his neck) proclaims, “I aspire to be unimportant.” Leach films Leiter both at home in his cluttered apartment surrounded by boxes of his work, and as he walks around his neighborhood that he’s been photographing for 55 years. Photography, explains this wise man who sees no need to apologize for the pursuit of beauty, “teaches you to look. It teaches you to appreciate all kinds of things.” (This is a co-presentation with CPW (Center for Photography Woodstock)